Woodland Trust recognised for its work with volunteers

The charity has been awarded the Investing in Volunteers Quality Standard. This is after being assessed against a range of best practice standards and having proved to excel in the areas of recruitment, safety standards, management, support, recognition and value.

The charity has 3,226 roles for volunteers who undertake invaluable work for trees and woods and nature across the UK. Without them its fight to protect and create woodlands would not be as strong.

Paul Taylor, National volunteering manager at the Woodland Trust said:

“We appreciate every volunteer that gives their time freely. They’re the lifeblood of the organisation. Every volunteer adds value to our organisation and helps us to achieve our goals. We have 3,226 volunteer roles which account for 174,000 hours of work, which is worth £1.7m annually.

“The scope of volunteering opportunities is broad; from office based roles such as researchers to trustees, to practical outdoor roles such as woodland working groups and tree health surveyors who highlight instances of tree disease – something that has been especially important in recent years with so many cases of ash dieback.”

The recent launch of the Young People’s Forest at Mead – the site of the former Lodge House opencast colliery – near Heanor, Derbyshire saw 135 young volunteers taking part in a host of activities including planting the first ceremonial trees. The Trust will be looking to recruit young people into roles in early 2020. Volunteers also played a crucial role in helping the charity as it fought devastating wild fires which swept across its Smithills site in Bolton last year.

Anyone interested in becoming a Woodland Trust volunteers can see all of the current vacancies on the website here.